Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Hwangap (or hwangab) is a 60th birthday celebration in Korea. Why 60? Because it apparently signifies accomplishing a "big circle" and coincides with the lunar calendar's 60 year cycle. In Korea, the 60th birthday celebration is usually thrown by the children of the one turning 60. Well, Bibigo's parent company, CJ Foods, just turned 60 so the "child", Bibigo, is throwing the celebration! I thought that was kind of cute.

Bibigo is celebrating by offering a three course prix fixe menu (the first two courses include two dishes each, though) for $45 per two people, which also includes a soju tasting. The menu will be available until Saturday, November 30th.

The first course includes two spicy pork steamed buns and a plate of brussels sprouts.
The steamed buns contain spicy pork, pickled radish and cucumber, lettuce, hoisin teriyaki on Chinese bao.

With this item I usually worry about the buns themselves being too dense or dry but the ones here were nice and fluffy.
The brussels sprouts are served with zucchini, cloves of garlic, zucchini, chili pepper and dried prunes.

Of course, the main course has to have Hot stone bibimbap (your choice of protein and type of rice)

At Bibigo you can choose your own sauces too. I had a mix of the sesame and kohot sauce on our bulgogi bibimbap.
The other dish in the second course was the grilled galbi short rib

It's quite a lot of food! We put in a good effort but didn't finish everything.

When you order the hwangap menu, you will also get a complimentary tasting of three soju (regular, plum, and raspberry)

The dessert is hotteok (hot Korean rice cake filled with brown sugar)! I don't see hotteok at too many places. There's the Flying Hotteok Truck and ... a store in front of a Korean market whose name I cannot seem to recall. At Bibigo, they dress it up with ice cream. It's less sweet than the truck's hotteok and I do like it with ice cream but I also enjoy it piping hot from the truck.

When you leave, you'll get a VIP card that's good for 10% off for all your future visits and 50% off your bill on your birthday (up to 8 people).